Rings of Power’ Sauron actor Charlie Vickers on what’s next in season 2

To no fault of actor Charlie Vickers — or maybe to great praise — we knew SomethingI was there with Halbrand from the moment Galadriel was taken to the Sundering Seas. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Eight episodes later, it was clear that the Southlands’ reluctant king seemed a bit out of place amid the dramatic ebbs and flows of Middle-earth drama. He had a secret.

[Ed. note: This interview contains spoilers for The Rings of Power season 1.]

Vickers was was flippin’ Sauron the whole dang time!

At the end The Rings of Power, the viewers (plus a few elves) know Halbrand’s secret, paving the way for Vickers to operate an entirely new mode in season 2. But Amazon’s first season was a juggling act we rarely see on TV; the actor had to possess the spirit of Morgoth’s No. The 1 guy pretending to play Halbrand till he got to Mordor. So what’s Sauron’s actual deal, which Vickers had to let simmer under his skin for those eight episodes?

Over Zoom from London, where he’s currently shooting The Rings of Power, we asked the actor about his villainous journey and where it’s headed next.

What was the first time you discussed Halbrand/Sauron? How did you get into the role of this character pre-reveal and throughout season one?

Charlie Vickers: I think when you look back to where he is, at the beginning of this season, it’s that he’s in this period where he’s rebuilding. Tolkien speaks of him being lingering in Middle-earth before slowly regathers his strength and returning to power. And I think we’re seeing him in that state, that kind of repentance stage. It is not clear if the repentance is real or fake. And I think you can view the season in both terms, whether he’s manipulating his way through and manipulating Galadriel in order to return to power, or whether he’s genuinely seeking a different life and trying to be a good person. What’s interesting is that those things aren’t mutually exclusive. He could be thinking he’s trying to do one thing, trying to do good, but really, in order to do that, he can’t resist manipulation.

And I think he’s motivated to heal Middle-earth. And he talks about in the last episode, when Morgoth was defeated, “It was like a great clenched fist and released its grasp from my neck. And then I realized I have to undo all the pain that I caused” — something along those lines. And I think he’s trying to heal Middle-earth from the destruction that it’s had over the First Age, to rehabilitate and reorganize it. While these things are a product of what happened in the First Age, and then what’s happened in the Second Age, I also think that he’s had these things built into his being, his personality. It’s the desire to achieve perfection. It’s craftsmanship.

Image: Prime Video

Patrick and J.D. were the showrunners. They compared Sauron with Walter White Breaking Bad. You were able to use that as a guideline or did you think of other characters morally corrupted? Or even real-life people?

I haven’t really thought that much about real-life examples. I’m very interested in politics, and I did watch a documentary about dictators in history and the way they crafted their rule. This was only to help it become more conscious. The Walter White comparison is interesting because he’s kind of an antihero. He does bad things, but we’re on his side. It’s possible that there is a bit of this in our story.

Other performances were also inspiring to me, especially watching other actors portray villains. […]While the show was being done, I was looking on The BoysAntony Starr was a great help with Homelander. It was clear that there were some things going on with this character. And then in that last scene with Galadriel he has something scary that just sits beneath the surface of what he’s doing. That was what inspired me. He can manipulate without any help, almost all the time without appearing unhinged. I think that’s interesting with Sauron because a lot of villains have this capacity for being really scary in the sense of there’s something out of control. Sauron, however, is focused on control. And there might be elements of his personality where he loses control, because of the circumstances that he’s come across in the First Age, but his manipulation comes through seduction and gaining trust of the people that he comes across. And so it’s quite unique to strike that balance, because he’s not your traditional villain like the Joker.

Speaking of seduction, the introduction of Sauron was one of the Polygon team’s most anticipated moments in The Rings of Power, mostly because we knew from Tolkien’s writing that he was supposed to be, to quote our resident expert, “Absolute hot.” First off, congrats. Did the character have sex appeal, or was that a topic you brought up during the casting process? It was a subject that came up in the discussion of Halbrand’s portrayal of Galadriel.

[Vickers melts into a puddle of bashful goo before quickly reforming] I think that any complication there in terms of chemistry and romance, it’s something that just naturally occurred, it wasn’t really a conscious decision. My favorite way to see it is [Sauron and Galadriel’s] connection to be something greater than romance, but I also think it’s really interesting that some people have interpreted it that way. But I think if that’s a byproduct of what people took from the relationship in the show that’s really cool. Sexy Sauron… that’s all the makeup and costume departments’ work [laughs]. I’m just a pretty regular-looking guy in real life.

Image: Prime Video

Tolkien created so many bits and pieces of history that define Sauron — were there specific “memories” that you carried with you from the beginning? What is Halbrand dwelling on that we haven’t actually heard him admit until the finale?

The subconscious work included creating Halbrand’s human life. Sauron must have an extensive life plan in order to portray Halbrand effectively and trick people. I guess all the subconscious work I did was in creating that and then also creating Sauron’s life and really thinking about where he’s come from. It’s a lot of reading, but also a lot of practical things. It was so fortunate to live in New Zealand. So I went hiking for a long time to create Sauron’s world. Tongariro National Park was where I visited. [what]These were used to build Mount Doom. The Fellowship of the RingThe first trilogy. The subconscious work was already there. And I hope that it informed the performance — I kept that in my mind as we were going

You’re in London now shooting season 2, and while I know we can’t talk about it too much, what do you make of the dynamic between Adar and Sauron? How did that impact your first episode? And where does it go from here?

Their past is complex. Their conflict has been ongoing for a very long time. The sixth episode shows a hint of this. And I think it’s pretty obvious when you watch the show that there’s going to be more of that relationship. We’re going to learn more about it. So I don’t want to speak too much about it, but pretty quickly in the second season, we learn more about that history. However, it’s complex and has deep roots. This will become more apparent as the season progresses.

Finally, where’d Sauron get his black robe? What is the Mordor dress code?

Wow, that’s a great question. Is it possible that he walked through villages and stole the robe from an inn? Maybe he was a murderer and stole the robe of someone on his journey to Mordor. There’s a whole bunch of different scenarios. You must have a large robe.